Bug Squad

Welcome to the Bug Squad blog! The Bug Squad blog was launched Aug. 6, 2008 and is a daily blog (Monday through Friday). It showcases entomologists and the work they do. The blog focuses on scientists in the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, the Bohart Museum of Entomology, Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, the UC Davis Bee Haven, and assorted campuswide events, including UC Davis Picnic Day, UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day, and Bohart Museum open houses. The blog spotlights insects, including bees, butterflies, dragonflies, and praying mantises, as well as arachnids such as jumping spiders and crab spiders. Author and photographer is Kathy Keatley Garvey, communications specialist, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, and a longtime journalist and community scientist with two degrees from Washington State University. She is a member of the Entomological Society of America (ESA) and the Association for Communication Excellence (ACE). Her blog posts and images have won international awards from ACE and ESA and appeared on journal and magazine covers. She shoots primarily with a Nikon Z-8 mirrorless camera, a Nikon D500 and Nikon 800, with assorted macro lenses. Feedspot lists it as one of the top entomology blogs on the Internet.

PATCH OF TIDY TIPS, California native wildflower, planted on the UC Davis campus, behind the Laboratory Sciences Building. If you look closely in the patch, you'll see scores of insects, including honey bees, hover flies, mason bees, ladybugs--and assassin bugs. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Assassins in the Tidy Tips

March 18, 2010

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

If you see a patch of California native wildflowers known as "Tidy Tips," look closely. The yellow daisylike flower with white petals (Layia platyglossa) may yield a surprise visitor. You may see an assassin. An assassin bug.

View Article

SEVEN-SPOTTED LADYBUG crawls along a leaf in a UC Davis flower garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

The Hunters Are Back

March 17, 2010

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

The hunters are back. Ladybugs, aka ladybird beetles, are searching for aphids and other soft-bodied insects. If you see a ladybug (family Coccinellidae), odds are you'll see her prey, the plant-sucking aphids.

View Article

CHEMICAL ECOLOGIST Walter Leal working in his UC Davis lab. His lab revealed the secret mode of the insect repellent DEET in groundbreaking research published in 2008.(Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

'The Treacherous Scent of a Human'

March 16, 2010

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

It's a killer, pure and simple. But the issue is as complex as it comes. The malaria mosquito, from the genus Anopheles, infects some 350 to 500 million people a year, killing more than a million. Most are young children in sub-Saharan Africa.

View Article

THIS HONEY BEE nectaring a backyard nectarine tree looks like stained glass. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Our Little Agricultural Workers in the Big Apple

March 15, 2010

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

If you've ever strolled the streets of New York, you probably noticed a few honey bees here and there. Not the HIVES (they're illegal), but the BEES. Tomorrow, the New York Department of Health and Mental Hygiene will vote on whether city residents can keep bees in the Big Apple.

View Article

What's Wrong With This Photo?

March 12, 2010

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

Take a close look. What's wrong with the first photo posted below this blog? If you're a beekeeper or someone who's been around bees, you'll know immediately. If not, you may look at the photo and say "Hmm, a honey bee. Yep, it's a honey bee, all right. It's on a what...

View Article